Walking by his side, she liked the feeling it gave her, and she vowed to watch him and learn.
They approached a store with barred windows and display racks set in front with electronic equipment and various other used items chained down. A sign above the door read, “Knight Takes Pawn Shop,” in flickering neon lights.
A bell rang as they stepped through the door. Displays flanked them on either side, and racks of cheap-looking guns lined the walls. At the rear of the shop, a gaunt, pale man watched a movie on his palmscreen. He had pulled his long brown hair into a greasy ponytail, and his hands were dirty—black crud caught under every fingernail. He wore what appeared to be a new leather jacket, studded with short metal spikes.
Hector cleared his throat, and the man’s eyes rolled up to them before stopping on Ynna. He scanned her body in a way that made her skin crawl. Boys had often gazed at her, complimenting her body and big eyes, but no one had ever leered at her the way this man did. She shifted uncomfortably and crossed her arms in front of herself.
The man smiled with thin lips, exposing yellowed teeth. “If she’s a relief aide, I’m not sure I can afford her, but I’ll sure as shit try.” He spoke with a slight brogue that Ynna would have found charming on someone else.
Hector’s face grew grim, and his tone, threatening. “Not for you, Killian.”
The man raised his hands defensively. “Just saying,” he stated, not taking his eyes off her.
Ynna was disgusted but knew she needed to play nice.
Hector pointed to the backpack. “She’s got some things to sell, and I want a good deal.”
“Oh, she’ll get a good deal,” Killian said. Every word that left his lips had a sexual undertone.
Hector looked at Ynna. “I’m going to look around in the back,” he told her and turned back to Killian. “Anything she no like, and I’ll pull your arm off.”
Killian shot him a crude smile, “my arm’s not the thing I want pulled.”
Hector stepped forward, his short frame menacing. “Killian, I swear.”
“Just playing around,” Killian said with an affected kind tone. He pressed a button, and a large metal door behind him opened.
Hector looked to Ynna as he stepped behind the counter. “He does anything, you just call out.”
Ynna nodded. Though she wasn’t thrilled about being left with the man, she appreciated that Hector trusted her to be left alone. As he disappeared into the back, Killian continued to stare. From the way Hector spoke to the man, she understood that this was how he treated the girls who came to his shop. She had seen enough creeps in her day to know that he got off on the uncomfortable feeling he elicited from women.
So, she smiled. With a broad, winning grin, she thrust her hand out and said, “I’m Ynna.”
The gambit paid off. Killian looked confused for a moment and stepped back, wiping his hand on his pant leg before taking hers.
“Killian,” he said, regaining his composure. “You’re new here?”
“Yessir,” she said with such a forced bubbly affect as to be laughable.
“And—and you have things to sell?” he asked, clearly unable to read her. Where her discomfort had given him strength, her affability clearly put him ill at ease. She was proud of herself for reading him so quickly and getting a leg up on the situation.
“Right again,” she told him, opening her bag and laying the contents on the counter.
“This’ll do,” he said as he opened the jewelry box to examine the items.
Ynna smirked. “I see a hand drop below the counter, and I’ll have Hector back here before you can blink,” she told him with a wink.
He seemed impressed and smiled. “Clever girl.”
“I’m a lot more than clever,” she said, drawing on the same surprising confidence that had motivated her to grab the items she was now selling.
“You know,” he said as if an idea was occurring to him for the first time.
“What’s that?” Ynna asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Well,” he said, leaning forward and speaking in a conspiratorial tone, “I may have a way for you to earn a little pocket money.”
Ynna wished he would get to the point, but she played along. “I’m listening.”
“I employ a few slip-gibbets—young people, such as yourself, who help me,” here he paused implicitly, “redistribute wealth.”
“That so?” she asked, interested for the first time in what the man was saying.
Killian wiggled his eyebrows. “It is.”
“Redistribute from other pockets to yours?” she put bluntly.
“I think you have the wrong idea,” he falsely protested, but tapped his finger to his nose and winked.
“I could use some extra money,” she said with a devilish grin. She knew her mother would never approve, but she didn’t care. She wanted to carve out her own place in the world. Her life had been on rails until yesterday, and now she wanted to know what her capabilities were.
“I thought you might,” Killian said. “Lose the old man and come visit me someday.”
“Right,” she said dubiously. His use of “old man” seemed odd to her. If anything, Killian seemed much older than Hector, but that may have been simply a low life prematurely aging his features. She also worried what coming here without a protector would mean. She had taken a self-defense class for young women offered through her school but worried what Killian might try if he had her alone.
Even wearing a loose-fitting top as she was, he had hardly taken his eyes from her chest since she walked in, and she knew she needed to be smart if she planned to deal with him alone.
“So,” she said, changing the subject, “how much for all this?”
He looked at the items and pursed his lips. “Ten thousand.”
“Ten thousand?” She scoffed. “Those shoes alone are worth ten times that!”
He clicked his tongue. “A thing is only worth what someone is willing to pay, and out here, people don’t have much.”
“Still, I’m pretty sure Hector said to give me a good deal,” Ynna protested.
“I’m not sure you know what a good deal is,” Killian said, his voice rife with condescension.
“I know it’s not ten,” Ynna said, her tone unwavering.
“Fine, I’ll do twenty, and you’ll be happy to take it,” Killian said as though he was giving her the deal of a lifetime. She knew he was probably right that people wouldn’t pay much for what she was selling, but she also knew how much they had cost in the first place. She wasn’t going to let him buy everything she had for next to nothing.
“How about fifty?” she asked, pained that she had to press for so little. Her prom dress alone had cost more than that.
Killian laughed. A gross, dismissive sound that reminded her of what he truly was.
“I’m sorry, did I fucking stutter? Pretty sure I said fifty.” The words left her mouth with a surety that impressed her.
Killian groaned. “I’ll hardly turn a profit.”
Ynna pointed a proud finger. “But you will turn a profit.”
She had him. “Fine,” he conceded. “Fifty for the lot.”
Ynna wanted to push him, wanted him to see that she was smart and capable. More than that, she wanted to show herself. “Right, fifty for the lot, except this.” She unfurled a long pearl necklace from the jewelry box. She had seen him eyeing it and knew he wouldn’t want to part with it. But she wanted something she could return to her mother. Something they could hold on to as a reminder of where they had come from.
Killian moaned. “That wasn’t the deal.”
“I’m altering the deal,” Ynna grinned.
“Fine,” Killian said. “But that’s it, and I expect you to bring this level when you run jobs for me.”
Ynna was so proud of herself, she wanted to do a dance. But she simply smiled and put the pearls in her pocket. “Oh, I will.”
Hector took only a short while longer in the back and emer
ged with a handful of things that Ynna did not recognize. She did see a large black box tucked under his arm with the words, “VR Education II,” scrawled on the side. During the pandemic which engulfed the world generations earlier, city dwellers were forced to stay in their homes to stem the spread of the illness. Schools became digital only classrooms to deter cross-contamination and even when the pandemic was resolved, the change stuck. Some brick and mortar schools like the one Ynna had attended reopened but most had not. She assumed that the headset would be somewhat inexpensive as the technology was outdated, long ago replaced with lenscreens or cybernetic eyes which would feed the classroom right into one’s brain.
“Your little friend robbed me blind,” Killian sneered.
Hector smiled. “That, I am happy to hear.”
“I’ll bet you are,” Killian murmured.
Hector looked at Ynna. “He pay you?”
She held up the cash chip with the value digitally displayed on the side. Hector’s smile broadened.
“Your school is my treat,” he told her as he heaved the stuff onto the counter. “As thank you to your mama.”
“You’re already doing so much,” Ynna pointed out, not that she wanted to pay for the rig.
“The kindness she showed me once can never be repaid,” Hector told her. She desperately wanted to ask about their history but knew better. Her mom had been cagey and changed the subject, and she knew he would do the same.
Back at the apartment, Ynna found herself unbearably bored by the curriculum of the digital classroom. The academy she had attended had been so advanced that this low-level education was painfully uninteresting. When the school day ended, she found the apartment empty save for a skinny cat sleeping on the couch next to her. She hadn’t seen it enter and hardly wanted to move when she prodded it to make sure it was alive. Hector had excused himself as soon as they had arrived, and it was another hour before her mom came striding in.
“I got a job,” Karen announced.
Ynna beamed. “That’s great, mom.”
“It’s not much, and it’s obvious the owner of the diner is just doing it as a favor to Hector, but I’ll take it,” Karen said. “You sell our belongings?”
Ynna passed her mom the chip, which Karen flipped over in her hand, seeing the value. “More than I expected.”
“I have a way with people,” Ynna boasted.
Her mother put a hand on her knee. “I know you do.”
Karen continued to show pride in Ynna that she wished she had experienced before leaving their old life. In a small way, Ynna was happy about what had happened. She felt a sense of purpose and skill she had never before known and saw a side of her mother she didn’t know existed. She was scared for their future, but also hopeful and excited.
“How was school, did you try it today?” Karen asked, pointing to the headset by Ynna’s side.
“I did. It was good,” she lied, not wanting to disappoint her mother.
“That’s wonderful!” Karen smiled. “It sounds like I’ll be working long and odd hours, so I may not see you as much as I’d like.”
Ynna gave her a soft smile and chuckled. “Mom, I’ve seen you more in the last two days than in the last two years.”
A pained expression crossed her mother’s face. “I know, honey. But our new life begins today, and I’ll make sure to see you as much as I can.”
She wrapped her daughter up in an embrace that lasted a long time.
The skinny cat looked up lazily, stood and stretched, its long body arching, and it’s hair standing on edge. It began to purr, and it moved to the warm headset on the couch. As it nuzzled its muzzle against the electronic device, the red light on the side of the rig turned green, indicating that the headset was in contact with a person.
Ynna grinned.
Chapter 4
It wasn’t long before Ynna understood the rhythm of life in the apartment. Hector and Marco would be up before the sun and, though both son and father would be out most of the day, they would return home for family dinner every night. Most nights, Hector would go back out after eating. When he didn’t, he would spend his time showing the two kids how to fend for themselves and encouraging them to work out in the apartment. Most evenings, after practicing their moves, Marco would play video games with Ynna until they could barely keep their eyes open.
Karen worked long shifts and was able to do little more than sleep in the times between. Ynna had known her mother to do little more than shop and eat, and it came as a shock to see her transition so easily into a life of labor. Ynna would occasionally go down the street to the diner to visit and eat but spent most of her days alone in the apartment, struggling to stay awake during her virtual classes.
Midmornings, the cat, who Hector simply called “Gato,” would appear through the window after a night of chasing the rats that clicked and chattered in the walls. Ynna began saving scraps of food and would feed the cat who, after being sated, would curl up next to her and sleep all day in a fluffy curl.
It was a while before she was brave enough to attempt what she had in mind. She signed into her class and removed the headset instantly. It vibrated slightly to alert the user that they were in non-compliance, and she quickly set it down on the rump of Gato, who looked up briefly at the shaking device before falling back to sleep. The vibration stopped when it came in contact with the body heat. Ynna smirked, thinking herself terribly clever—though she would later learn that this was one of the oldest tricks in the hooky playbook.
She wanted to test the system before trying it out for real, so she spent the day as a detective in Victorian London on Marco’s console. Playing video games with the young man had reinvigorated her love of escapism, and she began to understand why so many chose the digital world rather than the one before them.
In her life as a spoiled rich daughter of an affluent father, she spent her time trying to one-up her friends with exotic selfies, more concerned with looking like she was having fun than actually having it. Here, she felt the need to share nothing, nor any desire to see what all her “friends” (who had since gone silent) were up to. Her father had cut off service to her and Karen’s palmscreens anyway, and it was no longer a luxury she cared to pay for.
After discovering that the butler had been wrongfully accused of stealing the dowager’s necklace, Ynna felt the headset beside her buzz, and she blinked back to reality. She hit the pause button, and the holoprojected world of the game vanished, leaving her sitting in the squalid room. She popped on the headset and saw the words CLASS COMPLETE next to a green checkmark displayed within.
She smirked.
She would have between eight and sixteen hundred the following day to explore. She was still nervous about seeing Killian without her protector, but her excitement for action made her feel at ease. She had outwitted him on their first meeting and knew she could do so again.
She also wanted money. Something bound Hector to her mother, but he owed Ynna nothing and was still kind and generous to her. She didn’t want to have to ask for things from him or her mom anymore. She had to admit to herself that she missed shopping, missed having the means to scroll through images of items and pick something out for herself. Hector and her mother had both taken her to the all-in-one superstore to buy things, but it left her feeling meek and beholden.
The girl who desired luxury items died in the cab ride to this part of the city. Now, she wanted practical things she purchased for herself.
Determined, she left the apartment to walk the streets alone for the first time.
Her confidence wavered quickly when a large woman bumped into her intentionally and snarled something under her breath. Ynna decided to stop for liquid courage at a small refrigerated cart selling shots of spiced rum. The ancient man looked at her and smiled, picking up one of the small, dirty glasses in a metal hand with just two robotic fingers.
“On the house for a friend of Hector,” he wheezed.
“Cheers,” she answered with for
ced confidence, lifting the glass and gulping down the brown liquid. It burned down her throat, and she sputtered a cough. The old man laughed light-heartedly. She set the glass down with more force than she intended, rattling the glasses.
Head swimming, she regretted the decision to have a drink. She moved through the crowded streets toward the shop. Standing before the racks of items, she took a deep breath, the taste of booze swimming in her mouth.
The bell rang, and Killian gave her a devious grin as she entered.
“I knew I could get you to come,” he said with his usual disgusting undertone.
Ynna strode to the counter and smiled. “Here for work.”
“Oh, I’ll put you to work.” He smirked and began tapping at his palm. “Let’s make you some friends.”
He asked after Hector while they waited, Ynna providing evasive non-answers to all his questions. She came to understand that though they worked together, there was no love lost between the two. She tried to get more answers as to what exactly Hector did for money, but Killian was as forthright with Ynna as she was with him.
Before too long, a young woman entered, about Ynna’s age and very pretty. She had a cool look, wearing sprayed-on leather pants, a denim vest over an exposed bra, and dark makeup on her face. Ynna felt the familiar pang of jealousy she experienced when she would hang out with the pretty girls at school. Ynna knew she was attractive, her parents genetically designing her flawless features in utero, but this girl had the confidence which Ynna lacked.
She strode in and posed, crossing her arms judgmentally as she appraised Ynna. “New meat?” she asked.
“Whitney,” Killian said, “this is Ynna.”
Whitney cocked her head. “Weird name,” she observed as though it was the first time this point was made. “I’m Whitney.”
Ynna extended a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Whitney did not move to take the hand. “I’m good.” She turned to Killian. “Little rich girl thinks she can hang with us?”
“If I say she can, she can,” Killian told her.
“We’ll see,” Whitney said in a voice that clearly expressed her doubt.
Deadly in Pink Page 3